Weight of the Nation

Obesity is common, serious, and costly. More than one-third of adults (35.7%) and approximately 17% of children and adolescents are obese. Behavior and environment play a large role causing people to be overweight and obese. These are the greatest areas for prevention and treatment actions. Weight of the Nation brings together public health researchers and practitioners, policy makers, and national partners devoted to obesity prevention and control to raise awareness across the country as well as share approaches that show promise or demonstrated success for improving healthy eating and active living.
Over 1,200 people gathered in Washington, D.C. on May 7-9 for the Weight of the Nation 2012 conference. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, CDC Director Thomas Frieden, Let’s Move! Director Sam Kass and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter spoke at the conference about key obesity prevention priorities.
Didn't make it to Washington, D.C, last week? People all around the world participated in six sessions as they were broadcast live from the three-day event. The sessions will be available on demand at www.adph.org/alphtn

after June 15.
Photo: Weight of the Nation

The Weight of the Nation is also a documentary series and public health campaign. Three years in the making, the campaign is an unprecedented collaboration of HBO and the Institute of Medicine, is association with CDC, the National Institutes of Health, made in partnership with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Kaiser Permanente. The core of The Weight of the Nation campaign are four feature films that take an unflinching look at the severity of the obesity epidemic and its crippling effects on our health care system. The films broadcast on May 14-15 on HBO, and will stream free of charge after the broadcast at theweightofthenation.hbo.com

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Community and state programs can advance their community mobilization activities by hosting screening events for community and state decision makers, leaders, coalition members, community and state residents, elected officials, the media and others positioned to implement evidence-based strategies that make it easier for people to eat healthily and be physically active.
CDC provided scientific and other technical assistance to the films and campaign, including reviewing all materials to ensure their scientific accuracy. All content of the films and related campaign materials belongs to HBO, and don’t reflect CDC’s official positions.

What can you do to help improve the weight of the nation?

Watch:

Six sessions that were broadcast live from Weight of the Nation 2012 conference will be available on demand after June 15 at www.adph.org/alphtn .
The Weight of the Nation film on HBO May 14-15 (check your local listings; HBO will be free for many non subscribers for this broadcast) or after the broadcast at theweightofthenation.hbo.com .

Learn:

More about the causes, consequences and health effects of obesity at CDC.gov/Obesity.
The latest data and statistics tracking the obesity epidemic at CDC Obesity Data and Statistics